From peer support to global impact: Jessica Smith on leading comms at St John International

Jessica Smith. Photo by Roo Pitt

Jessica Smith is Director of Communications at St John International, which serves as the Secretariat to the Order of St John and supports operations across 44 countries and territories, with a global network of over 164,000 volunteers. It’s an organisation we’re proud to partner with at Hotfoot.

In the past year alone, St John establishments around the globe responded to 1.8 million emergencies and trained more than 1.1 million people in life-saving first aid. The Order of St John is the parent body of St John Ambulance – one of the world’s most recognised community healthcare brands.

In this conversation, Jess talks about her career, the power of volunteering, and the importance of leaving your ego at the door.

Could you start by telling us a bit about your background and how you ended up in your current role at St John?

When I was growing up, I actually wanted to work for Disney – very specifically, I wanted to write for Disney. I wanted to be part of creating a character that could wave at a child from a float in a parade and make them feel like magic was real. I wanted to be part of something that made people feel wonder.

I studied American History, Literature and Culture at university and spent a year abroad in the States, at the University of Albany. Whilst I was at uni, I volunteered with Nightline, which is essentially the student Samaritan service. When I was in the US, I volunteered for a similar peer support programme called Middle Earth, which took its name from The Lord of the Rings. I loved it. It sparked my passion for peer support and community.

How did that lead into a comms career?

Good question! At university, I became the publicity volunteer for Nottingham Nightline. I ran a campaign that I’m still proud of – it challenged the idea that Nightline volunteers were perfect students who’d never made mistakes. We used Patch the Bear, our mascot, to team up with different societies and show the human side of our volunteers. It worked so well that the campaign was picked up as best practice by the National Nightline Association.

From there, I became the national internal publicity volunteer, then Head of External Comms for Nightline Association. I planned the annual National Awareness Week with themes, briefs, events, even a partnership with Wagamama. It was my version of Christmas!

Jess at a school swimming gala with St John Zambia

That’s brilliant. What happened next?

After that, I moved to Edinburgh to do my diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy. I’d seen through Nightline how powerful peer support could be, but also where the mental health system was struggling. I wanted to learn more.

I trained for four years and volunteered along the way – as a school play therapist with Place2Be, a university counsellor, and in the community. At the same time, I worked for NUS Scotland as a student mental health project coordinator. That role brought everything together: I was delivering a mental health conference, running a grant scheme, hearing students’ voices and trying to ensure others were hearing them too – it was a time of wearing lots of hats! Sometimes I’d be counselling a student one day and negotiating with government stakeholders the next.

That must’ve given you a real perspective on how different people approach challenges.

Absolutely. It taught me how to hold the whole picture, to see things from every angle. And to stay ethical and congruent even when I had to juggle different roles or views. That ability to understand stakeholders and be flexible has really shaped how I work now.

So how did St John International come into the picture?

I nearly didn’t apply! I had to move to London because my partner got a permanent job here. A friend of mine, Matt Potts – who started the Camarados movement – pushed me to apply. I worried that the role felt too big and that they wouldn’t take me seriously. But he told me I was being an idiot, and I’m so glad he did.

I didn’t Google the interview panel – probably for the best! They’re incredible: Susan, our Secretary General, was previously the British High Commissioner to Canada. Jenny, our Chief of Staff, came from 16 years of diplomacy in the Foreign Office. Gareth, our Head of Programmes, has worked in humanitarian aid forever and has lived in – at the last count – 33 different countries. Every member of the team has a completely different background to mine, which makes it such a great breeding ground for fresh ideas.

Jess with the team at the Americas Regional Meeting in Trinidad

And now you’re two years into the role. What’s it like working in such a global organisation?

I describe it as my role in Nightline on steroids! I used to say Nightline was the most intense thing – 18 to 24-year-olds passionately trying to change the world in one night. But St John is that, at all ages, across 44 countries and territories.

We don’t just work together across different geographies; we come together as #OneStJohn across different religions, different languages, and different cultures – united by a shared mission to offer a gold standard in first aid and community health care. There’s constant learning – St John folks are quite rightly very passionate about what they do and so navigating how to show up differently depending on the context, how to stay agile, how to get it wrong and fix it, is crucial. And most importantly, how to not let ego get in the way. That’s something I work really hard at.

One of the standout moments you mentioned was being out on duty in Trinidad. What happened?

Oh, wow. Yes – I was shadowing one of our teams and we had to rush someone to hospital. It was 32°C at a school sports day and we had several children fainting, a few sprained ankles, and then a girl with serious breathing difficulties.

She didn’t have asthma, but clearly needed urgent help. The team in Trinidad were fantastic – they were so calm as they navigated the ambulance out of a tight spot on the sports field and then got us through some very heavy traffic on the highway. I haven’t been in an ambulance with sirens before – I’m one of those folks who have never broken a bone or gone under anaesthesia – and I was so impressed with how the team led so confidently with care. But what really struck me was seeing the realities of healthcare access. The nearest medical centre wasn’t open, so we had to go to one further away.

Michael and Gail and Jess at the school sports day in Trinidad

That really brings home the differences between health systems in different parts of the world.

It does. It made me realise just how much we/I take the NHS for granted here. When we run global CPR campaigns, there’s a big ethical question: how do you promote a lifesaving technique when access to follow-up care is so variable?

When CPR works, it is life saving, but it isn’t a given – and it does depend on further help arriving soon. So how do we hold both hope and the reality that sometimes, even when you do everything right, it won’t work – and that doesn’t mean you failed – or that you haven’t helped by trying.

How does that global complexity impact your work in communications?

It’s a challenge, but one that I really enjoy. Every St John is its own legal entity, run in-country by communities for communities. That’s the model we should have, but it means everyone’s at different stages with different health systems, cultures and infrastructures.

We’re trying to tell a global story without flattening those nuances. For example, we’re on version six of our brand guidelines because we keep integrating feedback from each location. That’s what makes it work. People need to see their voice reflected if they’re going to adopt it.

This is what you’ve been working on with Hotfoot recently of course…

Yes! Working with Hotfoot is always such a highlight. I think this is our fourth project with you guys, now? We had this big brand refresh to do, and we knew we wanted to do it with care and with consultation. Hotfoot really got us straight away – they understood that we weren’t trying to push a corporate identity onto our members, but rather co-create something that felt right for everyone.

We ran workshops with members from all over the world and Hotfoot helped us translate those ideas into a flexible brand that people could make their own. That approach extended into the website too – it had to work for people in over 40 countries and territories, from big organisations to small volunteer teams. Hotfoot were brilliant at translating that complexity into something clean, simple and genuinely useful.

I think we achieved that so much more with our new website designs than we ever possibly could have done otherwise. No matter what challenge we give you, you come up with a solution that works. Basically, you are all just extra members of the team at this point!

What are you most proud of so far in your work at St John International?

Our Communications Community of Practice. I inherited it as something quite hierarchical, and we’ve turned it into a truly collaborative space. Without it, we couldn’t have run our International Women’s Day campaign – spotlighting women around the world for 64 days – or our 24-hour World Restart a Heart Day campaign, where we posted 300+ times in 24 hours.

It’s a space at St John where your title, location or level of experience doesn’t matter. Everyone’s welcome. And that’s what I’m most proud of – creating something people want to be part of that has a visible, tangible impact.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out in comms, especially in the charity world?

Volunteer, but don’t let it take over your life. It’s a fantastic way to try different styles of working, and find what makes you tick. And just give things a go. You can have the best strategy in the world, but real learning happens in the doing.

Also, learn when to stay quiet. Knowing when not to add noise is a comms superpower. If you can master that at 18, you’re ahead of most people.

Finally, perfect the art of introducing yourself and asking questions. Befriend the folks you admire and want to work with. I can’t recommend doing that enough – go and learn from the people whose work you love. You just never know where it might take you next.

That’s a brilliant note to end on. Thanks so much, Jess.